My new D7100 & AF-S 80-400mm

Just took the plunge today with my biggest single spend on camera gear. After studying these forums and many others, including review sites I bought a shiny new Nikon D7100 and the spanking new AF-S 80-400mm f4.5-5.6 ED VR.

First impressions on the camera are that it feels more substantial in the hand than the 7000. The grip is thicker. The layout is very similar to the D600 rather than the previous model. It thankfully has a 100% crop on the OK button which was missing on the previous one. A bit of a nitpick is that the USB socket is smaller than the older one so I can't use my old cables, unless I can get a simple adaptor.

The lens looks a real beast. I remember seeing the older version & thinking that looked big but this one is huge. It is very light however, because I compared it in the shop to my 70-200mm 2.8 vr1 and although the 80-400mm is noticeably bigger it is also much lighter. The tripod collar is a little weedy looking and I have heard a couple of moans about it. I think there are already replacement collars available but it does seem a bit daft to go out and replace a tripod collar on a lens costing well over £2000 GBP. I think I will live with the original.

So the first impressions are very good but now I just need some decent weather to go out and try them. Today was very wet, tomorrow looks fine though. I'm looking forward to using my new combo.